John R. DelaneyGarmin SpeakThe Garmin Speak is a unique navigation device that lets you use Alexa voice commands to create routes, play music, and do everything your Amazon Echo does while you're in the car.

No visual maps. Cable is difficult to hide. Requires a strong cellular connection and uses data.

Bottom Line

The Garmin Speak is a unique navigation device that lets you use Alexa voice commands to create routes, play music, and do everything your Amazon Echo does while you're in the car.

Fans of Amazon's Alexa voice control service will love the Garmin Speak ($149.99), a tiny GPS device that looks and acts like a mini Echo Dot. It lets you play songs from your Amazon music library through your car's audio system and will even control Alexa-enabled devices in your home. It offers on-the-fly routing using voice commands, gives you verbal turn-by-turn directions, it uses a small display and a light ring that tells you when to turn and when you've arrived at your destination.

Design and Features

In addition to GPS technology, the Garmin Speak uses Bluetooth to communicate with your Android or iOS phone and with your car's audio system. It also uses your phone's cellular data to bring Amazon's Alexa voice service to your car, and requires a strong cellular signal in order to work properly (more on this later). But unlike most navigation devices, it doesn't offer visual mapping.

The device itself looks like a much smaller version of the Amazon Echo Dot. It has a cylindrical shape and measures 1.4 inches in diameter and 1.4 inches in depth. On its face are a microphone and a 0.68-by-0.38-inch display with 114-by-64-pixel resolution. It uses text and various directional arrows to show route information such as the distance to the next turn and which way to turn. Voice-guided driving directions accompany the visuals, but you don't get any maps or touch-screen functionality like you do with most GPS devices, such as the Garmin nüvi 3597LMTHD.

A swiveling magnetic mounting bracket extends from the top of the Speak's enclosure and attaches to a small mounting plate with an adhesive back that holds it in place on your windshield. On the bottom of the enclosure is a second microphone and on the left side are a Mute button that enables/disables the microphones and an Action button you can use to turn the device on and off and accept an incoming phone call. You can also press this button to begin speaking to the device rather than use the "Alexa" voice trigger. On the right side is a mini USB power jack. The Speak is powered by your car's 12-volt power outlet and comes with a 13-foot power cord and a quick start manual.

An LED light ring around the display uses colors to let you know how close you are to the next turn. For example, the bottom of the ring will glow green when a new turn is displayed, and the ring will gradually fill out as you get closer to the turn and become a full green circle when you're arrived at the turn or at your final destination. The ring pulses blue while processing a command or when recalculating a route, and the lower half glows blue when the Speak is in listening mode (when you say "Alexa" or press the Action button). The ring glows amber when in pairing mode, magenta when there's an incoming call, and red when the device loses its cellular or Bluetooth connection or when the microphone is muted.

Along with voice guided turn-by-turn directions and visual prompts, the Garmin Speak lets you create routes using Alexa voice commands. For example, you can say, "Alexa, ask Garmin to find the closest McDonalds," and it will tell you the address of the McDonalds nearest to your current location, its operating hours, and ask if that's the one you want. Say "yes" to create a route or "no" to hear about the next closest one.

In addition to a location name, you can have Speak find a location by city, street address, and intersection. While en route you can ask things like "How much further do I have to go?," "What time will I arrive?," "Where am I?," and "What's my next turn?." You can also get traffic updates by saying, "How's traffic?," and ask about the local speed limit for the road you are on, but make sure you begin each navigation query with "Alexa, ask Garmin." As with any good GPS system, the Garmin Speak will recalculate your route if you miss a turn or take a detour, and you can save favorite locations such as home, work, and school. To find the best way home, just say, "Alexa, Ask Garmin to take me home."

You can do nearly everything with the Garmin Speak that you can do with the Amazon Echo, Dot, and Tap devices. It'll play selections from your Amazon Music Library and stream music from Pandora, but Spotify streaming is not yet supported. You can create to-do lists, check the local weather, have Alexa tell you a joke, hear the latest news and sports scores, and control smart home devices such as thermostats, lights, and garage doors, using Alexa skills.

The Speak mobile app gives you access to a handful of device and navigation settings. It opens to a screen that shows the status of your Speak device and has a Where To? bar that allows you to enter the name or address of a location that you want to go to. Select Yes when prompted to create a route. Tapping the gear icon in the top right corner brings you to a settings screen where you can tweak Navigation to avoid things like carpool lanes, ferries, highways, toll roads, and unpaved roads, while creating a route. Audio settings let you connect the Speak to your car stereo, configure phone call audio, and enable or disable voice-guided directions. In My Locations you can store Home, Work, and School addresses, and in Amazon Alexa you can see examples of phrases you can use for things like setting timers, checking the weather, finding a restaurant, and more. While en route a small map with your destination will appear, but it doesn't show your location on the map.

Installation and Performance

Installing the Garmin Speak is easy, but hiding the long power cord may be challenging depending on your vehicle. I peeled the protective film from the mounting plate adhesive and attached the entire device just below the rearview mirror in my F-150 truck. The instructions tell you to tuck the power cord up into the space between the windshield and the trim, but in my truck, the gap was a bit too wide and the cord kept popping out. I used some electrical tape to help keep it in place for testing purposes, but a couple of clips would have come in handy. It should be noted that I had no such problems hiding the cord in my Honda CRV, so your mileage may vary.

I downloaded the mobile app and followed the on-screen instructions to pair it with my phone. I plugged in the power cord and waited a second or two for the LED ring to glow amber. I opened the app and it immediately began searching for the device. After 30 seconds the device was identified and a pairing code was displayed in the app and on the display. I verified that the numbers matched, pressed a button on the Speak to accept the pairing request, and authorized the pairing in the app. I selected Yes when asked if I wanted to use Bluetooth to play music and Alexa voice commands through my car stereo, and entered my Amazon username and password to link the Speak to my Alexa profile.

The Speak did a fine job of creating routes and supplying driving directions in my tests. Although I personally prefer a screen with real-time mapping, the Speak's voice-guided instructions, traffic reports, and visual aids allowed me to keep my eye on the road without missing a turn, and its directions were spot-on. Moreover, it always recalculated quickly whenever I went off route.

However, there were a few instances where the device was unable to create a route. It was able to identify my location, which means I had a clear GPS signal, but the LED ring continued flashing blue while it tried to create a route. Each time this happened I noticed that my phone's cellular signal was showing only two bars, which leads me to believe you need a strong signal for optimal performance. Voice requests to locate addresses and businesses like the closest Irish pub worked wonderfully, but as with your in-house Alexa devices, you have to enunciate clearly for the best results.

The Speak did a great job with home automation commands. It turned my Vivint-controlled lights on and off and raised the target temp on an Ecobee 4 thermostat without issue. It also turned a Haiku fan and my patio lights on and off without missing a beat, and had no trouble streaming music from my Amazon Music library. News, weather, and sports scores arrived immediately when requested as well.

Conclusions

The Garmin Speak is a great choice is you already use Amazon's Alexa voice service at home and want to bring it in the car. It's very easy to install and takes but a few minutes to link up to your Amazon account. It performed well in my driving tests, delivering accurate routes and turning directions, and it quickly recalculated a new route whenever I strayed off course. Granted, there were times when my cellular signal was not very strong and the device was not able to create a route, but those issues were few and far between.

If you're looking for a full-featured GPS navigation device for your car, the Garmin Speak may not be the best choice as it lacks the touch-screen display and real-time mapping you geti with our Editors' Choice, the company's nüvi 3597LMTHD. But it's still an cool little nav device and a useful addition to your Alexa ecosystem.

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About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of t... See Full Bio

Garmin Speak

Garmin Speak

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